The Humboldt UU Fellowship has ordained three other ministers since the 1950s. Tharp received UU preliminary fellowship from the Unitarian Universalist Ministerial Fellowship last year.

She is Muslim and embraced Unitarian Universalism in 2001 as a Muslim. She is married to Michelle Hasting and they share a family together.

Tharp is a healer, spiritual guide, social justice advocate and Peace of Mind Parent and Life Coach. She teaches classes and is recognized for community and individual responsiveness.

Her ministry focuses on community building, visioning and healing through Community Vision Healing. She leads a spiritual development program called Soul Matters and facilitates the Redwoods Unity Mosque Initiative’s El-Tawid Juma Circle.

Internationally, Tharp serves as a spiritual guide and counselor for Muslims with progressive values, offering pastoral care, classes and healing circles via phone, zoom, as well as in person. She leads Peace of Mind Parent classes and support circles in Humboldt County.

Within the Unitarian Universalist tradition, the honor of ordaining a minister is held by the congregation which, in the governance, holds the highest decision making power and occurs through consensus vote.

The Rev. Bryan Jessup, HUUF minister, says of Tharp: “Jamila Tharp is a member of HUUF, has a tremendous community ministry background, and particularly will be leading community ministry in Humboldt County for and with our congregation. This new UU minister has a depth of experience, has led social justice advocacy (i.e., marriage equality), has a multiracial Muslim family and offers a healing vision for this faith of love and justice.”

The Rev. Lindi Ramsden, acting dean of students and community life and a visiting assistant professor of faith and public life at Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley, will deliver the Ordination Sermon. Ramsden was the founding executive director and senior minister of the Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry California. UULMCA engaged California Unitarian Universalists in collaborative, spiritually grounded justice ministries, making significant contributions to the movements to secure marriage equality for same-sex couples, establish the human right to water, pass health care reform and advance immigrant rights.

Advertisement

Tharp received a master’s degree in urban and regional policy planning, with an emphasis on feminist and environmental planning in 1990. In 2014, she received a Masters of Divinity at the Unitarian Universalist Graduate Theological School, The Starr King School for the Ministry, with an emphasis in studies for both Unitarian Universalism and Islam. She served as hospital chaplain at The Good Samaritan Medical Center in Corvallis, Oregon, and as parish intern minister at the First Unitarian Church of Salt Lake City.

Of ministry Tharp says: “I have spent decades studying how people and communities heal. My passion for studying people’s stories, various bodies of knowledge about science, social sciences, humanism, world religions, spiritual practices and transformational healing help to create in me fertile ground for ministry. My faith guides me to care for all of creation and to challenge systems of inequality, including the very systems which benefit me, yet harm others. I value deep listening. I am honored to be ordained into Unitarian Universalist ministry by the Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.”

The Celebration of Ordination will be followed by a potluck and live music by the Asha Nan band.

For more information, call Humboldt Unitarian Universalist Fellowship at 707-822-3793.